


Maybe Love at First Sight is Real After All

by csichick_2



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Death Fix, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 03:50:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7875079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/csichick_2/pseuds/csichick_2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first person Barry sees when we wakes up from his coma isn't Joe or Iris, but rather Joe's new partner.  And Barry very quickly decides that Eddie Thawne is someone he wants to get to know better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Maybe Love at First Sight is Real After All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [morrezela](https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrezela/gifts).



When Barry finally wakes up, he expected the first person that he would see would be Joe. And if not him, than Iris. But instead, it’s someone that’s vaguely familiar to him from work, but that he doesn’t actually remember the name of.

“Joe’s going to be giving me looks for weeks. I finally convince him to go home and get some sleep and that’s when you wake up,” the man says. “Oh sorry, I’m Eddie Thawne, Joe’s partner.”

“How long have I been asleep that Joe has a new partner?” Barry asks, almost afraid of the answer.

“Nine months,” Eddie replies. “I’ve been Joe’s partner for the past six and for the most part when he’s not working, he’s here. Iris is here almost as much, but Joe gives her the disapproving parent look every time she tries to cut class. Which is why I’m keeping you company and not her.”

“Well, thanks for making sure I didn’t wake up alone,” Barry replies. “But I have to know, how did you get Joe to actually leave?”

“I may have threatened to tell the Captain that he hasn’t been home in three days,” Eddie says. “He’s already threatened to bench Joe if he doesn’t stop showing up to the precinct looking like death warmed over.”

“That would do it,” Barry replies. “I don’t think he’d know what to do with himself if it weren’t for work, especially now that Iris and I are grown.”

“I should let him know you’re awake,” Eddie says. “He told me to let him know if anything changed.”

Barry shakes his head. “Let him sleep. It sounds like he really needs it and it’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

“If he gets mad at me, I’m telling him that you told me not to call,” Eddie responds. “His bad side is somewhere I’d rather not end up.”

“It feels like I spent half of high school on his bad side, so I don’t blame you,” Barry says amused. “How about you start filling me in on the past nine months?” he adds. From these few minutes, he can tell that Eddie is someone that he wants to get to know better, and keeping him talking is one way to keep him around to do just that.

They pass a couple hours talking before Iris arrives after class. And while Barry is glad to see his best friend, he can’t help but be disappointed when Eddie makes his excuses to leave a few minutes after she arrives.

“Awake less than a day and you’ve already got a crush,” Iris teases.

“It’s not like that,” Barry counters.

“It totally is, but don’t worry, it’s cute,” Iris replies. “I had a crush on him too, but I’m not his type.”

“What is his type?” Barry asks.

“Male,” Iris responds. “So that’s good for you. At least until Dad decides to kill him.”

“Iris!” Barry exclaims.

“You know it’s true,” Iris says. “Remember how bad he was when we were in high school?”

“I mostly remember being glad I wasn’t you,” Barry replies. “I’m surprised he even let you leave the house.”

“The only reason you didn’t have it just as bad is because you didn’t have your bisexual revelation until college,” Iris replies. “Though given how infrequently you date, I was starting to wonder if that was just a phase.”

“Shut up,” Barry says, embarrassed. “Not all of us are good at that sort of stuff.”

“Which means you’re going to wait for Eddie to make the first move, while he waits for a sign that you’re interested,” Iris replies. “Maybe I should just lock the two of you in a closet to speed things along.”

“Okay now you’re being overdramatic,” Barry says, rolling his eyes.

“Only because I love you and want you to be happy,” Iris replies innocently.

“We both know that’s not the only reason why, but nice try,” Barry responds.

While Iris doesn’t make good on her threat to lock Barry and Eddie in a closet, she does push them together at every available opportunity. Though despite Iris’s predictions, Barry is actually the one that makes the first move, kissing Eddie in his lab one day.

“Have dinner with me,” is Eddie’s response, before he initiates another kiss between them.

“I was starting to think you’d never ask,” Barry replies.

“I wasn’t sure if you’d actually say yes,” Eddie says. “Which you technically haven’t.”

Barry laughs. “This is why Iris threatened to lock us in a closet to make us figure things out. And yes, I’ll have dinner with you.”

“Tonight?” Eddie asks hopefully.

“Tonight sounds perfect,” Barry replies.

As far as first dates went, it was a bit of a disaster. Eddie got called onto a case at the same time Caitlin and Cisco started calling Barry, and the night ended with Eddie finding out The Flash’s secret identity. Eddie avoids him for a few days until Caitlin takes matters into her own hands and forces them to talk through things. They weren’t without their disagreements – Eddie didn’t like how quickly Barry threw himself into danger, for which Barry constantly called him a hypocrite considering that Eddie did the same thing nearly every day – but for the most part not having the secret of Barry’s powers between them made them stronger.

The two of them dating also solved the Reverse Flash problem, though that wouldn’t make itself clear until a few months later when Harrison Wells mysteriously disappeared at the same time the Reverse Flash stopped menacing Central City. In searching for clues, they stumble across Wells’ secret room and the AI tells them everything. It turns out that when the Reverse Flash killed Barry’s mother, it started a ripple effect of changes that resulted in erasing his own existence when Eddie started dating Barry instead whoever he had been with in the reality that Eobard Thawne erased. Eddie looked almost betrayed by the newspaper byline of “Iris West-Allen” from ten years in the future, but Barry is quick to remind him that it’s from a future that no longer exists. He also points out that Eobard literally ceasing to exist is probably a pretty good sign that their relationship is meant to last.


End file.
